Ruminations on the farce that is life.

Category Archives: race

That’s the end of that I hope, though my Facebook trawling indicate otherwise, sigh. She was interviewed by Malay Mail in which she explained somewhat about what provoked her virulent rant. You can read about it here.

Two separate lessons here. One is, this person has learnt a hard lesson about the pitfalls of social media. These days, practically anyone with access to a wired PC can post anything on any subject.

But, with great connectivity comes great responsibility. We say anything we want, but if we are not prepared to back it up with some cogent arguments, brickbats would soon follow.

Secondly, the bigger issue of what’s going on in that head of hers. Presana’s frustrated writings betrays a lack of understanding about not only communication but Indians in Malaysia.

Yes, some machas harassed her, and though she related one incident, it could have been something she endured many times. How does a woman deal with threats to self like that? I suggest getting some street smarts .

I was in her place, at different times in my life. Yes, I felt anger against the harassers. But at no time did I single out the ethnicity of the harassers as a target of my hate. I did not even target the gender.

In my case, it was because the harassment came from males of different races, even foreigners; Ang Mohs, Latinos, Africans, Pakistanis…you name it. KL after all is cosmopolitan.

Common denominator: Adult Males.

So do I hate guys? NO. I can’t. Cos sexual harassment is no longer about just race, gender etc. It’s about power. Some guys get off on the reactions. Some are just trying their luck. That doesn’t mean the entire male population is suspect.

Or in Presana’s case, that doesn’t mean all the machas are suspect. That is racial profiling. And racial profiling seems to be the reason why many, many machas end up recipients of Police Raja Di Malaysia’s “hospitality”, some of them dead, others languishing in Simpang Renggam under preventive detention (without trial mind you).

You see how one bad thought escalates into violence? So if a bunch of machas are really assholes devoid of a modicum of manners, is it fair to demonise the entire Tamil population of Malaysia?

People of Indian and Sri Lankan ancestry settled in Malaysia have many other issues affecting them. Lack of financial/educational opportunities, poverty, systematic marginalisation, disunity…to name a few.

We are not that numerous. Soon, the influx of foreign labour would/perhaps has been already, dilute the economic and rights pie even further. Thank you, Projek Pemutihan! Can we afford these incendiary words like pariah…among us? Was Interlok not enough of a lesson?

I hope the girls of Presana’s ilk realises the folly of her words. They cannot end well.

Note: I acknowledge that my previous post on the matter also triggered some serious debate. I received many emails on the matter. Some of them kinda angry too. I will respond in the next post. Thanks.

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This guy is the MP for Pasir Salak. For those who read Sejarah Malaysia, Pasir Salak is a proud symbol of Malay pride in “menentang penjajah.”

This was purported where British Resident J.W.W Birch was killed by local hero Maharajalela, for screwing around with local chicks. If this were true, I’d say good riddance to guys who can’t keep it in their pants.

Back to present time. Tajuddin Abdul Rahman is a first term MP from this Perak constituency who somehow managed to hang on to his seat despite the PAS onslaught of March 8.

This Six Million Dollar Man (his nomme de guerre) seems to have bonded well with the Kinabatangan canine Bung Mukhtar Din to form some kind of tag team in Parliament.

What makes this guy different from the former Jasin and Jerai MPs is that this guy is far more virulently nationalistic, and I don’t mean nationalistic in a flattering way.

He refers to the non-Malays in Malaysia as “pendatang,” as in all Mon-Malays in this country are “pendatang asing”. He apparently said so on July 1 in Parliament.

If that is indeed what he said, then I must say he is mistaken about many things. Firstly, I’m a second generation Malaysian. My grandfather was a migrant, yes, but my dad and later me, were born here. That makes me a legitimate Malaysian citizen. So how am I a pendatang?

Secondly, he must define what he means by Malay. Every other Malay friend I ask says he/she is Bugis, Mendahiling, Jawa, Aceh, Minang, Penang Malay (Jawi Peranakan).. hell, even Boyan. A lot of them are mixed.

And if you bother to check, you might find that Khir Toyo’s dad was an Indonesian and Khir himself is a first generation Malaysian. Khir Toyo was the MB of Selangor, cos you guys just lump all the Melayu-looking fellas under the Bumiputra title. Why? “Kita kan serumpun” goes the reply.

He has said before that the Bumiputera students’ scholarship quota should not suffer just because JPA wants to increase the percentage of non-Bumis to get scholarship.

He wants to mollycoddle students like Saiful Bukhari who had gone to the DPM’s house ostensibly to get help regarding scholarship, when he only managed 1.69 GPA, and has since dropped out of Uniten?

In the meantime, some high-achieving but poor student has his dreams destroyed because of his name, or colour.

When we go out of the country, we are called Malaysians…that’s it. When some Malaysian makes good overseas, he is still known as a Malaysian, not a Malaysian Chinese.

I have long stepped beyond this stupid categorisation. Many of us have.

I just think in Tajuddin’s case, it would take a frontal lobotomy for him to see the multiracial reality of Malaysia and embrace it.

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Indians. This word in this context refers to Malaysians of Indian Origin

Snake. Refers to the legless reptile species that mostly glide and slither on the ground. Feared by most people because many of its are poisonous.

Umno Bitch. A female member of Umno. Often makes foot-in-the mouth, stupid, dangerous statements just to curry favour with the establishment “Abangs”. In this context, a particularly sickening specimen that survived the March 8 political upheaval to be a State Assembly rep from Sungai Rapat, Perak.

Seeing as how the Wanita Umno representation in the Cabinet has been so pathetically pruned, Umno Bitch’s snake or Indian rhetoric could be a valiant attempt at catching the attention of mass media, and hopefully again, the party elders, whom I heard are regular drinkers of the famed Kopi Jantan.

It’s about political survival, I guess. Even those ladies and “ladies” in Bukit Bintang and Chow Kit are reportedly throwing in “extras” together with discounts to ensure some trade in these difficult times where everything also naik, and therefore adversely affecting the crucial thing that hitherto always ensured the world’s oldest profession remain recession-proof.

Poor women. Poor Sungai Rapat. You gotta get what you can. Never mind if you imply that it is preferable to kill some 7% of the country’s population than to kill a snake.

I’m not saying a snake’s life is less than a human’s. God knows the snake population of Malaysia is threatened by this new-found taste for reptiles by some of our Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia-frequenting local fellas. But that is a whole other story that merits it own post.

Back to Sungai Rapat. (Pic borrowed without permission from Minaq Jinggo.)

She has since apologised for her statement. I think to begin with, if she takes exception to the Perak State Assembly Speaker’s double standards (and I don’t deny the may be such things), this should not be her first reaction.

That she equates the Speaker (who is of Indian descent) with snakes, (implicit rather than explicit) reflects a thoughtless person. If spontaneity is often held to be the true reaction, then this Wanita Umno bitch actually thinks its preferable to kill an Indian to a snake. She is the type of Melayu that triggers the equally knee-jerk Hindraf manifesto-writing Indian.

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Last week, I came home to find my young housemate sitting in front of the TV, glassy eyed. I had a bad day too. I decided my misery can wait, and listened to her.

This young Malay girl, when she first moved to my place, struck me as rather innocent in the ways of the world, in a way that I found refreshing. Her mother, when she left the young daughter at my place, said, “Jaga anak makcik ya.” That plaintive appeal moved me.

I felt protective about this girl, b, whose family is away in Pahang. So I share what I can with her when the occasion arises.

This time she needed a shoulder and an ear. She said, “I heard from my colleague that my superior doesn’t like me because I’m Malay. And she doesn’t trust anyone who wear a tudung.”

I felt both angry and helpless. B’s complaint is all too familiar. I’ve encountered racism is all manner of appearances since I came to Kuala Lumpur. Ironically, even though my family was of a minority back in my kampung, I’ve never encountered this ugly facade of Malaysia until I came to KL.

Look at us. B is Malay, L (my other housemate) is Chinese and I’m Indian. We co-exist. We cook and eat each other’s stuff. We watch TV together. And it’s barely months since we knew each other.

Yet, all around the condo where I live, I see a lot of House to Let or Room to Let notices with caveats like “Chinese Only”. I understand if it says “Females Only” since not many girls I know would feel comfortable sharing a house with strange male. In the case of B, that would be inviting trouble in the form of “khalwat” raids.

Why did it happen this way? A close friend of mine sometimes makes racist remarks that make my skin crawl. I confront her about it and she says, “I’m a product of my surrounding. They started it first.”

Call me a grass-smoking Spread-the-Love type if you wish (I don’t do weed, btw), but I think my friend’s reactionary manner is also wrong.

What is this about race supremacy? It is crap and really unapplicable in this modern, borderless world. Why this hate? I know that in a big way, NEP, or rather the way it was implemented, is to blame.

The sloganeering political parties shouting racial epithets and dividing themselves along racial lines, are to blame. We hardly have people who truly fight for the betterment of their people.

The Malaysian-ness of us started dying out when truly Malaysian Icons like P.Ramlee and Sudirman left us without replacements. And yet, in the absence of true Malaysian-ness, it is not as if the Indians, Malays, Chinese and others grew more powerful racial identity-wise.

The Indians and Chinese (typical of the diaspora) of course lost more of their original ways. This is not bad at all; assimilation and adapting is only natural if you wanna survive and thrive.

Now, Pakatan Rakyat must ensure that they never again go the race way. Because this will lose them support of the people and a disillusioned rakyat is dangerous.

Umno’s brand of benign autocracy hid a whole world of ills that many other bloggers have written more and more eloquently about. And it is no longer benign.

I don’t care if Tun Dr M wants Pak Lah to go, him from outside Umno and his son from within. The many cracks in Umno only goes to showcase a part without a sound ideology that was kept together since 1988 by the iron will of the old man. They all suck!

Ong Ka Ting and his band of merry fat-wallets can go fly kite. This is the guy who used to negotiate behind closed doors for crumbs and bits from Umno masters. Now he is crying for Hindraf 5’s release. What about the rest of the ISA detainees Mr Ong?

Gerakan, despite its token “multiracial” line, is a Chinese party brought about to check the influence of MCA, way back then. It should amuse you readers that a Gerakan man who was snubbed for an electoral seat in 2004, was fobbed off with a senatorship a couple of months before GE 2008.

After the elections disaster, there was barely any Gerakan reps standing. So one Senator Kohilan Pillay from Selayang makes it to the Cabinet. Heh Heh! There is only two other Gerakan reps in Cabinet (if I’m not mistaken) and only one (tan Lien Hoe) is elected.

DAP has its own old guard who persist in this Chinese-rights thing under the guise of socialistic aims. I’m not fooled. Plus of course the dynastic politics that makes them quite unqualified to call the Umno kettle black.

MIC? I dunno what to say. Samy Vellu has no shame and no sense of accountability. I think he should just fade away quietly. MIC itself should just die. All this rebranding business is just stupid, needless and irrelevant in the face of today’s realities.

I salute the guy who lodged a police report against Samy regarding Maika Holdings. However, in these times when every Ahmad, Ah Loy and Arumugam lodges a report at the slightest provocation, would it matter? There are dozens of reports against Karpal (plus a bullet).

And so I wonder, why aren’t there many more reports against Samy and Maika? After all, there must be many many people affected.

Why ah?

Why don’t we the rakyat, send these corrupt relics to hell in a mengkuang basket?

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Raja Petra Kamarudin is fond of using this Malay saying that means, being angry with the mosquito, you set fire to the mosquito net. Calamitous move, in any case.

I suppose this applies to Tun Dr Mahathir, Malaysia’s erstwhile PM who made an unforgettable Wesak Day with this shocking announcement that he is quitting UMNO.

I’ve often seen politicians making statements like “put the party first” and its many variants, and not having been part of a political party EVER, these statements baffled me.

Because lots of these scumbag politicians (was that a redundant phrase?) have made these calls, and I’ve always wondered why? Why put the party first when the people suffer? Doesn’t make sense, does it?

Anyway, Dr M is and has always been Macchiavelian. (That is not to say that Niccolo Macchiaveli was Satan-incarnate. He was merely putting forth his theories on statecraft). This is quite apart from what I see as a very clear and hands-on approach to administration.

Dr M has guts. His political record during the 22 years at the helm of Malaysia hasn’t exactly been stellar, but his governance to a large extent helped this country forward. Many of you may disagree with me, and so you may state your disagreement in the comment section. But I take my hat off to the man.

However, Just like I found the Royal Commission’s recommendations last week that the Lingam six be investigated, somewhat too politically-expedient, I find Dr Mahathir’s move today to be a calculated one.

What does he hope to achieve? Destabilise an already shaky Umno ship? He’s doing a fine job of it? Is this going to be a death knell for Umno or Pak Lah?

Both, I would say. This also means that the populace is now split four-ways. The Pas supporters and members, the PKR lot, the Mahathirist Umno members and the Abdullah Umno camp.

Shahrir Samad has said maybe we should prepare for another general elections. I wonder if that is a wise move for the BN governemnt now. Everything that happened after March 8 polls have not been good for them.

A trawl around the blogs that posted Mahathir’s shock quit move showed mixed reactions from the commenters.

Dr M perhaps should not count on the rakyat to react favourably to this move. There will be forces within Umno (and of course the powerbrokers who control that the puppet strings) will try their hardest to ensure that the status quo is preserved.

Maybe the nation’s stability’s at stake here. And Dr M is not helping. He wants Pak Lah out. However, he has retired and many perceive that he should not meddle. I don’t think Pak Lah deserves to be PM anymore, not if the country is to firmly tackle the economic storm ahead.

I’m thinking, many of the leaders he has in Umno are there because of Dr M. Either there are simply too many seedy sleazy Malay politicians within Umno ranks to make Dr M’s pickings slim or he wanted them there for his own reasons.

Because of this, we have the likes of the insubstantial Pak Lah, the outwardly spineless but ultimately dodgy Najib, the widely seen-to-be-lightweight Muhyiddin as heir-apparents.

Shahrir Samad and Rais Yatim are not outwardly ambitious enough to take the helm of Umno but both have shown some steel in their character that may make them seem a bit too “independent” for Umno stalwarts’ comfort.

Rais has a tendency to rub people the wrong way too. That is not to say this guy may not be capable. And in the event of succession, these two fellas seem to be the the only ones not widely seen to be pro-Dr M or Pak Lah. But then, I may be wrong.

You know something? As a Malaysian who has seen what an ugly, rotten behemoth Umno has become, the party going to pieces is something good for Malaysia.

Dr M’s contention that Malays are losing sovereignty in their own land is a statement he has to rethink, for all its supremacist-connotation.

I’m very much disappointed with Dr M’s endangered Kedaulatan Melayu contention today. Was that meant to rile the disenchanted Umno mob?

Ketuanan Melayu the way Umno practiced it resulted in a lot of injustice in this country. It was more like Umno hegemony, if you ask me. Which is why Anwar Ibrahim’s Ketuanan Rakyat resonated so well with the people.

Anwar might have his agenda too, but hey, maybe Malaysians are tired of being screwed by the same bunch of people. Maybe they want a different set, who’d be a little kinder.

Malays are the tuans in this country aren’t they? I mean, the PM is a Malay. All our Sultans are Malay. We do not dispute that at all do we?

This is not about Kedaulatan Melayu at all. This is about Umno losing power, and they are shit scared they will lose it forever. But why did they lose it? Because the minority races in Malaysia got together for an anti-Melayu stand?

No way! All that is happening now, is because of lousy governance, inequality in so many areas from education to socio-economics.

From an ambitious autocrat (Dr M has contributed a lot to the nation’s growth, I believe) to a weak but somewhat nice guy who is seen as having lost control of his government.

It is not the Chinese Indians and the lain lains that are conspiring against the Malays. It is the corrupt Umno and its “beggar” coalition partners who were brought down to their knees.

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Today: Wednesday, May 13, 2008, marks the 39th anniversary of a black day in Malaysia’s young history as a sovereign nation.

Have we come a long way to distance ourselves from the bloody nightmare of 1969? I believe that we have. Why? Because on March 8, Malaysians took a bold step away from the status quo.

Reverberations from what local pundits love to to call a political tsunami are still being heard. The full compendium of effects is yet, i’m sure, to be seen.

The balance of political power is rather precarious right now. However, this has not translated into the angst among a certain race or another.

Malaysians are gradually stepping beyond racial and religious demarcation and towards common ground. I see this a lot. The only ones who are left behind are the race-based political parties and the petri dish of segregation that the civil service (with its largely Malay population).

Lessons learnt? We have to embrace each other as Malaysians. We have to learn about each other’s norms and sensitivities. Learn to respect these differences. It is usually the minorities that learn these things in order to assimilate and survive.

Maybe it is time that the majority learnt to, as well.

Last night I talked to my Malay housemate B about respecting another’s sensitivities. I told her that my other housemate AL and me made a point of not having pork or other non halal stuff in the house so that she (B) can cook and eat with us.

I said she could return the understanding by not cooking beef in the house, which I don’t touch. She didn’t know these stuff. I told her and she took it very well.

Maybe our eventual cohesion as Bangsa Malaysia may not come as easily….but it will have to start with mutual understanding and respect.

But I have great hopes.

And for those who gave their lives in the May 13 bloodbath, may their souls rest in peace.